“Vice” topped all contenders Thursday, in nominations announced at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, including best picture, comedy and best actor nominations for Christian Bale’s nearly unrecognizable performance as the former vice-president. It also earned nominations for Amy Adams’ supporting role as Lynne Cheney, Sam Rockwell’s George W. Bush and both the screenplay and direction by McKay, the veteran comedy filmmaker who once skewered politicians as a “Saturday Night Live” writer.

For even the often-quirky selections of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a collection of 88 mostly less-known freelance film journalists, the strong support for “Vice” (which arrives in theatres on Dec. 25) was a surprise. Even its categorization of the film — a highly critical portrait of Cheney as a power-hungry, behind-the-scenes tyrant — as a comedy raised some eyebrows, just as Globes recent comedy selections “Get Out” and “The Martian” did.

But it was far from a runaway win for “Vice” as the press association typically spread its awards around. Oscar front-runners “A Star Is Born,” ”Green Book” and “The Favourite” trailed close behind with five nominations each.

Curiously, the Hollywood Foreign Press doesn’t consider foreign-language films for best film, so Alfonso Cuaron’s acclaimed Netflix drama “Roma” was left out of the Globes’ top category. It was still nominated for best screenplay, best director and best foreign language film.

Damien Chazelle’s Neil Armstrong biopic “First Man,” which has seen its awards hope wane in recent weeks, failed to liftoff, scoring neither a best film nod, nor one for Ryan Gosling’s leading performance. (It did land nominations for Claire Foy and its score.)

Also left out, to gasps heard across social media, was Ethan Hawke’s performance as an anguished pastor in “First Reformed” and Pawel Pawlikowski’s Polish stunner “Cold War,” his follow-up to the Oscar-winning “Ida.” (The nominees for best foreign language film alongside “Roma” were “Capernaum,” ”Girl,” ”Never Look Away” and “Shoplifters.”)

But the Globes also handed nominations toward some up-and-comers, including Lucas Hedges (“Boy Erased”), Timothee Chalamet (“Beautiful Boy”) and Elsie Fisher, the 15-year-old star of the coming-of-age tale “Eighth Grade.”

And it also made room for some old favourites: Robert Redford, in what he has said may (or may not) be his final acting performance, received his 10th Globe nomination for “The Old Man & the Gun.” He was given the group’s Cecil B. DeMille achievement award in 1994.

The nominees for best animated film were: “Incredibles 2,” ”Isle of Dogs,” ”Mirai,” ”Ralph Breaks the Internet” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

The ratings for last January’s broadcast, hosted by Seth Meyers and graced with an impassioned speech by Oprah Winfrey, dipped 5 per cent with approximately 19 million viewers. As the first major award show following the Harvey Weinstein revelations and subsequent launch of the #MeToo movement, the usually more frivolous ceremony had an atypical edge of seriousness. In a demonstration organized by the then-just-founded Time’s Up, many women wore black on the red carpet.

Whether this year will return the Globes to their more lighthearted celebrations will rest partly with its unexpected pairing of Andy Samberg and “Killing Eve” star Sandra Oh, who on Thursday was nominated for best actress in a TV series drama. They were announced as hosts to the Jan. 6 ceremony, to be broadcast live on NBC.